BodyWorld

From the astonishing imagination of Dash Shaw, visionary author of Bottomless Belly Button , comes a darkly fantastical graphic novel about a small town, a lowlife botanist, and a mysterious plant with strange powers.

It's 2060, and a devastating civil war has left the country in shambles. Professor Paulie Panther--botanist, writer, and hopeless romantic--arrives in the experimental forest town of Boney Borough to research a strange plant growing behind the high school. As he conducts his research, he befriends some of the local residents: Miss Jem, the alluring science teacher; Billy Borg, Boney Borough's star athlete; and Pearl Peach, the rebellious schoolgirl. Paulie soon discovers that the plant, when smoked, imparts telepathic powers. But when he shares this remarkable drug with his new friends, he finds that they're not interested in mind-expansion. In fact, it appears that Paulie's brash individualism might not be at all welcome in a town that prefers conformity to eccentricity.

Nominated for a 2009 Eisner Award and with a bold, innovative design, BodyWorld is a mind-blowing blend of science-fiction, classic high school drama, and futuristic what-if. It is at once funny and fearless--and sure to be the graphic novel event of the year.

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A hallucinogenics-hunter, on a quest to smoke and document the effects of all plant-life on the planet, discovers a plant on a university campus that allows the smoker to experience the sensual perception of anyone nearby, which, of course, builds into an insane mixture of emotional textures that Shaw exploits to the ultimate use, with some of the best pacing in the industry.